Pokemon GO is taking over The Shops at Wiregrass mall, new restaurants are nearing completion of S.R. 56, we stop by and talk with PROtential Sports and Gary shares some of his favorite places to get a good meal in the Seminole Heights area.
Tampa Palms Getting A RaceTrac
It may be hard to notice, due to the widening of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in the same area, but a new RaceTrac gasoline station and convenience store will soon be going up in Area 3 of Tampa Palms.
Currently wrapping up the permitting process, RaceTrac will soon begin construction of a 5,928-sq.-ft. store with 18 gas pumps at the southeast corner of BBD and Cypress Preserve Dr. It will be directly across Cypress Preserve Dr. from the Chase bank and newly opened LA Fitness.
Note-There will be two entries/exits at the Racetrac off Cypress Preserve Dr., but none directly off BBD.
A 6,000-sq.ft. RaceTrac was opened late last year on S.R. 56, the first one ever built in Wesley Chapel. The one in Tampa Palms will be the 10th RaceTrac in Tampa.
Racetrac has more than 500 stores nationwide, and roughly 4000 in the south alone. It is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.
Bye bye Beef’s
After many years as a local staple for beer-drinking chicken wing lovers who would often fill the place on Saturday and Sunday for NCAA and NFL football, the Beef O’Bradys located in the Cross Creek Commons plaza next to the Publix on the corner of Cross Creek Blvd. and Morris Bridge Rd., is no more.
The store, owned by Boyette Family Enterprises, Inc., has shuttered its doors and the Beef O’Brady’s sign out front has been removed.
Word is they hope to find another restaurant to fill the space.
If you are having trouble wrapping your head around why anyone would camp out in a parking lot on back-to-back nights for a free chicken sandwich, order of waffle fries and a medium drink weekly, Robert Hutto understands.
If you think it’s all about the chicken (although he says it’s really not), Hutto gets it.
And if you think Hutto is a little crazy for sleeping in an asphalt parking space off S.R. 56 and then hanging out there all day in 93-degree heat — for a few sandwiches — he doesn’t blame you.
Crazy?
“They are not too far from the truth,’’ Hutto says.
Hutto and Barbra Spesak, Brandon residents, were the first two people in line at the Grand Opening of the newest Chick-fil-A in our area, this one in front of the Tampa Premium Outlets off S.R. 56. Hutto arrived June 28 at 8 p.m.; he saved a spot under his 10’x10’ tent for Spesak, who arrived after work at 11:30 p.m.
Decked out in complimentary red and white Chick-fil-A t-shirts and paper hats, they were the first two in line and the first two through the door on Thursday morning, June 30. As cameras from two local television stations rolled — as well as our own WCNT-tv cameras recording footage for our second episode (see pages 44-45 and 51), Hutto and Spesak met the local Chick-fil-A franchise owner Britt Young, shook his hand and received their chicken “debit” card — stocked with 52 No. 1 combos — before being ushered out another door and back into the parking lot.
For those doing the math at home, it was 34 hours of waiting for about 30 seconds of picking up the reward.
“But, it’s about the experience,’’ Hutto said.
The experience is called the First 100, a Chick-fil-A tradition started 12 years ago to celebrate the grand openings of their wildly popular fast food chicken restaurants. Chick-fil-A has given away more than $27-million in free food since beginning the First 100.
For Hutto, it was the third time he had been one of the first 100. He also waited overnight at the Chick-fil-A openings on Waters Ave. in Citrus Park, as well as for the Bruce B. Downs Blvd. location in New Tampa.
“I’ve made some friends at these things,’’ Hutto said. “They have a live deejay playing music. They feed you breakfast, lunch and dinner, so that’s not bad. It’s a good time.”
Both Hutto and Spesak admit that they probably won’t eat every No. 1 meal on their cards themselves.
“It really isn’t about the sandwich,’’ Hutto said. “When we are out and we see someone who needs a sandwich, like a homeless person or something like that, we’ll go hit the drive-thru and use the card for them. We’ll also use it for friends and family.”
Hutto, who transports RVs all over the country for a living, says he also sometimes uses his free meals as a pit stop when he’s on the road.
He said of all the First 100 events he has attended, this one might have been the toughest. It was blistering hot, the heat made even worse by his setup on black asphalt, and it rained three times. During one heavy downpour the last day, more than a dozen revelers seeking free chicken abandoned their posts, and the first 12 alternates were selected.
Nothing, however, was deterring Spesak, a certified nursing assistant. It was her first overnighter at Chick-fil-A.
“It was fun,’’ she said. “Everybody thought I was crazy, the people at work thought I was crazy, for taking days off to go camp out at a Chick-fil-A.”
And, she may have caught the fever. Asked if they had plans to do this again, Spesak said she is already scouting out the next opening.
“I hear they might be opening one soon on Dale Mabry,’’ she said, smiling.
As the world speeds forward and embraces more of a technology-based economy, the Tampa Innovation Alliance (TIA) is hoping to do its part to help the area around both New Tampa and the USF area keep pace.
Last month, the Alliance got a pretty sizable helping hand.
On June 28, the federal government awarded TIA a $3.8-million TechHire Partnership Grant, one of 39 distributed across the nation and announced by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Department of Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
“There is no limit to what we can accomplish when we work together,’’ said TIA President and CEO Mark Sharpe in a press release the day the grants were announced.
The grant, the result of a partnership between TIA and CareerSource Tampa Bay, the University Area Community Development Corporation (UACDC), Hillsborough County and the Tampa Bay Technology forum — and championed by District 14 U.S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor — will help with programming and training for technology and healthcare jobs, for those in the North Tampa area who are unemployed, underemployed or merely looking for a career change.
The grant is a huge award for TIA, which was founded in 2014 by Sharpe (a former Hillsborough County commissioner) and area businesses with the intention of rejuvenating the North Tampa area around the University of South Florida. Sharpe hopes to transform the area economically through business innovation — and grants like this will help.
“When you think about us as a relatively new organization, taking our first attempt at a national grant, that’s a big deal,’’ said Kelley Sims, the senior vice-president of TIA.
TechHire was launched in 2015 as part of a federal government initiative designed to build economic development through the growth of technology jobs nationwide.
Sims said she believes TIA was able to secure the grant because of its strong partnerships with more than 150 area businesses, many which have already declared an interest in hiring graduates of the Tampa Bay TechHire program.
“This is for an extreme variety of people, from those entering the workforce to those who just want to change their place in the workforce,’’ she said.
Applicants for the grant funds must be between 17-29 years old, with barriers to employment and training opportunities (e.g., lack of money, transportation or having to work full-time while training to support a family, etc.), says CareerSource Tampa Bay (& Pinellas) programs director Michelle Schultz.
CareerSource will partner with Hillsborough Community College (HCC), St. Petersburg College (SPC) and the UACDC to provide the tech training, and HCC, SPC and the Erwin Technical College (a vocational school in the Hillsborough County Public School system) for healthcare training.
The program also is designed to benefit “frontline incumbents,” Schultz said, as workers employed at IBM and BayCare Health Systems also will have opportunities for training to advance in their current positions.
USF will allow participants to earn certificates and associate degrees in customized programs.
“This can be transformational for the area,’’ Sims said.
Although the boundaries of TIA are between Busch Blvd. (to the south) and Bearss Ave. (to the north), and between I-275 (to the west) and I-75 (to the east), Sims said our readership’s proximity to the area means New Tampa-area residents and businesses also will benefit.
“As that (USF) area improves, so improves the jobs available for those who may be living in New Tampa or for (USF) graduate students who want to live in New Tampa,’’ Sims said. “The idea that a whole other area is being created around the north part of Tampa, which you haven’t been hearing about the last 10 or 20 years, means new opportunities for everyone living in the area. It’s really going to affect us all.”
For more information about the Tampa Innovation Alliance, visit Tampa Innovation.com.
The land across from Hunter’s Green’s main entrance still sits there, mostly untouched, other than serving as a retention pond for a road widening.
Despite county approval 18 months ago for a village/town center, dog park and New Tampa Cultural Center, there are no dump trucks, no cranes and no men in hard hats wandering around.
If you are one of the many who have wondered — and many have asked us — what is going on, the answer is plenty.
“Tell them it’s definitely coming,’’ says District 2 County Commissioner Victor Crist, who represents New Tampa on the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) and was one of the key forces in making the long-sought-after New Tampa Cultural Center a reality.
“There are so many hoops we have to jump through,’’ Crist says. “But we’re jumping through them.”
David Freeman knows that all too well. His company, Harrison Bennett Properties, LLC, won the rights (along with Regency Centers as part of a joint venture) in 2014 to build a mixed-use village center, tentatively called The Village At Hunter’s Lake at the time of approval.
The development is expected to feature a 20,000-sq.-ft. cultural center (expandable to 30,000-sq.-ft.) that will seat roughly 300 and include art and sound galleries — and its primary tenant will be the New Tampa Players, a local acting troupe that has been putting productions in our area for more than a decade — a 3-acre dog park and a town center that would include a “green” grocer, shops and restaurants and anywhere from 100-250 condos, townhomes or boutique apartments.
Harrison Bennett will build on roughly 17 acres of land purchased by the City of Tampa. The property is part of 80 acres originally purchased by the city for drainage and a retention pond for the widening of Bruce B. Downs to eight lanes.
Freeman’s proposal was chosen via a unanimous 7-0 vote by the BOCC on Dec. 17, 2014, with the understanding that Harrison Bennett would be responsible for obtaining the necessary zoning, permits and land-use approvals from the City of Tampa.
“At this point, we are really getting started with the process of rezoning so we can move ahead,’’ Freeman says. “Right now, everything else is just on the backburner.”
“People are excited,’’ says Crist, who is often asked about the status of the project. “They want to get it up and opening and running immediately. Unfortunately, this is not just a clean piece of dirt. It’s environmentally protected land, and had an original zoning as a park site or preserve. This is a very complex deal.”
The project is currently in an inspection period, according to Josh Bellotti, director of Hillsborough County’s Real Estate & Facilities. He said that engineers are continuing their investigation of environmental and stormwater issues.
The inspection period was scheduled to conclude on July 30, but has been extended through Sept. 9 to allow the buyer to conduct its due diligence. The extension is nothing too unusual, Bellotti said, as engineers begin digging into undeveloped land and find new issues to deal with.
After the inspection period is over, the project moves into the approval period – which lasts 180 days – when Freeman has to obtain all of the necessary regulatory approvals. The approval period, should any issues arise, can be extended up to a maximum of 360 days. Closing would occur 30 days after the approval period ends, which could be sometime in March of 2017.
A Little History…
Sure, red tape can hold up projects for years. But you can’t blame those skittish about the development of the cultural center clearing obstacles. The quest for a cultural center — or a “pulse” and “identity” as some had referred to it over the years — has stretched more than a decade.
In 2001, a Connecticut firm was paid $27,000 by the city for a study that determined New Tampa could support a cultural center. The nonprofit New Tampa Cultural Arts Center — led by Hunter’s Green resident Graeme Woodbrook — was offered the six acres it requested for the project, but the city wanted the group to come up with a $10-million endowment to pay for it, killing the effort in 2005.
The project was revived again for a brief time in 2007 by New Tampa Players president and founding artistic director Doug Wall, who also was involved in the earlier efforts. But again, money was an issue, until Crist was able to secure promises of funding and the project gained traction.
“It’s rewarding for them to know their work was not done in vain,” Crist says.
Crist says he is currently working on creating a new nonprofit, similar to the University Area Community Development Corporation (which Crist helped start and he is still a Board member). The nonprofit would be housed at the Cultural Center and would manage it, while being responsible for programming and fundraising.
The cost of the Hunter’s Lake project is around $7.5-million. The county has $3.1-million budgeted in its CIP program, Harrison Bennett will provide the county with $2.02-million in cash, as well as making another $1.885 million in site improvements.
Crist said he has been told the final appropriations for the project are included in the 2016-2017 county budget, which will be debated and finalized by Aug. 1.Â